Nigeria needs 50,000mw p/d to meet electricity demand

…as Ikeja Electric signs N11.4bn metering contract

Nigeria should be producing about 50,000mw of electricity every day to meet the country’s demand gap, Kola Adesina, chairman, Ikeja Electric, has said.

Adesina stated this during the launch of buggies and bicycles at the Egbin Power Plant, Lagos, Tuesday, describing as ‘shameful’ Nigeria’s current unstable 5, 700mw for its 200 million population.

Meanwhile, in a desperate move to ensure steady supply of electricity to customers, Ikeja Electric has signed N11.4 billion metering contract. Adesina said that the company signed the contract for the purpose of metering customers.

The company, he said, was also investing massively in network expansion and entering into additional contracts for meter production.

“We have signed service contracts with all our customers and we will ensure that we supply to them,” he said, adding that $44 million has been invested in metering infrastructure, improved technology and innovation to boost Ikeja Electric’s operation.

Commenting on the power sector, he said the performance of the sector since the privatisation in 2013, has witnessed a significant progress but that a lot of ground still needed to cover.

“Nigeria was doing about 3,000MW in 2013 but today it is doing about 5, 700MW averagely. In terms of generation and distribution, we are way behind. We are moving forward but not moving as fast as we should,” he said.

Continuing, he said “we should actually leapfrog achievements than these incremental achievements we are making. The reason this is so is because electricity analysis is not done using economic principles that required.”

On the premium customers innovation introduced by the company, Adesina said customers that keyed into the scheme at Ogudu, Magodo, Ikeja and other areas where it has bilateral power supply agreements have witnessed improved supply.